Megaminx can painlessly improve your color neutral skills

[jaredye]

I've tried practicing CN on my 3x3 and got a little mileage, using jskyler91's method. I was only about 20% slower using non white-yellow cross with CFOP. When I started doing CN I was about 100% slower.

Then I just got my Megaminx yesterday and I did some solves. I notice my CN skill improved dramatically on my 3x3 solves. Now I can do CN F2L almost as fast as white/yellow. I think it's because when I solve the megaminx, I'm forced to do F2L for so many different colors, and so many times.

Now when I think about it I think megaminx is probably the best training ground for one who wishes to become color neutral. If you just practice CN F2L solves it's not that efficient. You have to re-scramble the cube after insert 4 pairs. Whereas you insert 20+ pairs of various colors when solving a megaminx, and you have to look around this huge thing to look for the pairs. More importantly, jskyler91's method is really boring and painful. I was often frustrated when I see all the bad times I get. Whereas on a megaminx, looking for and inserting pairs are quite fun. Of course there are other aspects that you need to work on to become truly CN, like memorizing the color orders of different crosses and PLL recognition. Those are not too hard. Megaminx can help with the most difficult part for CFOP users, the F2L.

I'm just throwing this out as an alternative method to train your CN skill. If you ever wished to become CN but lack the will power to practice, I think megaminx can help you a lot without going through much suffering.

 

[Praetorian]

megaminx helps everything, helps you look for pieces, helps you with F2L, helps you solve with different colors, it's glorious

my 4x4 times have lowered from averaging 1:30 to 1:20 with only 3 days

my megaminx single time has lowered from 5:13 to 1:05 in 3 days

my 3x3 times have NOT changed

 

[efattah]

This is pretty weird. I actually noticed the same thing. I was practicing megaminx intensely for a couple of weeks, kind of felt like I was wasting my time, but it was such an exceptional exercise to get your brain to look at a zillion pieces and find the exact color pair you are looking for. I agree that it is beneficial for all sorts of things related to other cubes.

Eric Fattah
Vancouver, BC

 

[sqAree]

I always thought solving Megaminx would help with color neutrality, but I figured out that it doesn't really help 3x3 at all. Sure, you have a lot of differently colored F2L pieces on a Megaminx.. But they have different colors than my 3x3.
Also, most people solve the Megaminx always using the same order of colors. Like, true color neutrality is never reached, only neutrality for tons of different color patterns?

 

[Ordway Persyn]

I always thought solving Megaminx would help with color neutrality, but I figured out that it doesn't really help 3x3 at all. Sure, you have a lot of differently colored F2L pieces on a Megaminx.. But they have different colors than my 3x3.
Also, most people solve the Megaminx always using the same order of colors. Like, true color neutrality is never reached, only neutrality for tons of different color patterns?

I personally never know why people solve F2L using the exact same order of color always. what advantage does this bring?

 

[biscuit]

I personally never know why people solve F2L using the exact same order of color always. what advantage does this bring?

You know what to look for. On 3x3, there are few enough colors that you can pick them out really fast, but on mega, it can help if you're looking for something specifically.

 

[jaredye]

So my white only AO20 is about 19.5, and I just did a CN AO20 where I picked the most obvious cross everytime, and I get 21.2. Now I'm less than 10% slower than white only! I think if I work more on cross color orders and PLL recognition I'll be pretty close to full CN!

 

[Praetorian]

In my opinion you should only do color neutral if you've done it from the beginning, forcing yourself to practice on each separate cross can be troublesome, and there's no reason to try and be color neutral anyway, because there are more than plenty cubers who are very fast who aren't color neutral. CN is definitely helpful, but if in your head it makes you think that it'll make you faster, don't worry about it, keep doing what you're doing

 

[jaredye]

In my opinion you should only do color neutral if you've done it from the beginning, forcing yourself to practice on each separate cross can be troublesome, and there's no reason to try and be color neutral anyway, because there are more than plenty cubers who are very fast who aren't color neutral. CN is definitely helpful, but if in your head it makes you think that it'll make you faster, don't worry about it, keep doing what you're doing

I know CN can help very little regarding improving my speed, but I do it mostly for fun. At currently age (26) I don't think I have any hope of being even close to the top in any event. I just want to enjoy cubing. Learning and being able to do something that I couldn't do is certainly one way I can enjoy cubing.